"The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him." (Proverbs 18:17)

Saturday, 23 March 2013

Objections to the Doctrine of the Trinity

NOTE: many
of the Trinitarian objections made by the JWs are typical of virtually every
anti-Trinitarian group. This section does however focus on the Watchtower's
booklet Should you Believe in the Trinity. For more
exegetical responses to other anti-Trinitarian objections and assertions see:
Oneness
Objections to the Doctrine of the Trinity.

The Watchtower
Bible and Tract Society (i.e., the corporate name of the Jehovah's
Witnesses; hereafter JWs) prints enormous amounts of books, pamphlets, and
literature teaching their members that the doctrine of the Trinity is a false
doctrine. The JWs are taught that the Trinity doctrine originated from the
Devil, and promulgated by the Catholic Church. To be sure, JWs have a gross
misunderstanding of the doctrine, hence, since the early twentieth century the
Watchtower has consistently taught that the Trinity is a false:

How
strange that any should attempt to misuse and pervert these our Lord's
words, to make them support the unreasonable and unscriptural doctrine of a
Trinity--three Gods in one person (Studies in the Scriptures, 5:76).

Never was
there a more deceptive doctrine advance than that to of the Trinity. It
could have originated only in one mind, and that the mind of Satan the Devil
(Reconciliation, 101).

Most JWs
carry around with them their most popular handout booklet (and study guide)
called: Should you Believe in the Trinity (hereafter SYBT).
If you have ever discussed the Trinity with them, you probably have been given
this booklet. The booklet provides the bulk of most arguments that they use
against the "deceived Trinitarians" thus many dedicated JWs memorize
the arguments stated in the SYBT.

Thirty-one pages of arguments against the "dreaded" doctrine of the
Trinity. Chalk-full of misquotes and selective
citations from various Encyclopedias, Dictionaries and biblical
scholars. Additionally, the SYBT contains a mega-dose of blatant
misrepresentations of early church Fathers, historic revisionism and doctrinal
deviations. But yet to the JWs, the SYBT booklet is their gun-of-choice study
guide to annihilate the "evil" Trinitarians. You might ask, why
would they take this booklet seriously when it contains so much
disinformation? The reason being: JWs do not practice independent researchoutside the libraries of their Kingdom Halls (the place where
the JWs assemble). At the end of the SYBT booklet, it concludes by saying:

There can
be no compromise with God's truths. Hence, to worship God on his terms means
to reject the Trinity doctrine. It contradicts what the prophets, Jesus the
apostles, and the early Christians believed and taught. It contradicts what
God says about himself in his own inspired Word (31; under the title
"Reject the Trinity").

JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES: OBJECTIONS TO THE TRINITY

(Based on the Watchtower publication: SYBT
and other standard arguments used by JWs)

To
assume: what is not stated must not be true is an argument from
silence. Further, to say that the doctrine of the Trinity is not true
because the exact word "Trinity" is absent from the Bible is self-refuting.
For if that kind of reasoning were true, it would then follow, that Watchtower
doctrine could not be true, for in the original Hebrew and Greek text
Watchtower terms like, “theocracy,” (which they claim their under),
"Jehovah," (Note:
"Jehovah" is an Eng. transliteration. Orig. Heb. had no vowels
only consonants: YHWH) are not contained in Scripture either. It also
does not follow that because a particular word is not contained in Scripture
that we cannot use that word to communicate a truth of God.

What
is not at all considered is that even terms like, "Bible," (a Lat.
term) or "self-existent," are not mentioned in Scripture and both
are biblical truths, which all JWs agree upon. If we were only
limited to strict biblical words, then, we would have to, when teaching
out of the New Testament, use only Koine Greek words that the New Testament
authors utilized! Employing unbiblical words does not violate the rules of sola-Scriptura,
which says Scripture alone is the sole infallible regula fidei
("rule of faith") for the church, as long as the unbiblical words
are wholly consistent with Scripture. Holding firm to the regula fidei
the early church would use unbiblical words to explain and define the biblical
data revealed within the pages of the Holy Writ.

In
other words, “Trinity” is merely a precise doctrinal word that defines the
biblical revelation that is so overwhelmingly found in Scripture: God the
Father sent God the Son; the Eternal Word, in which He became flesh (cf. John
1:1; 6:37-40; 17:5). After which God the Son died in the place of the believer
whereby His death provides full atonement for the sins of His people (cf.
Matt. 1:21; Rom. 8:32), and God the Father and God the Son sent the God the
Holy Spirit to empower the church, and dwell with believers:

“When
the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father,
that is, the Spirit of truth who proceedsfrom the Father,He
will testify about Me” (John 15:26; emphasis added).

Again,
this point must be understood: We cannot confuse biblical data with doctrinal
words that merely define that data. The doctrine of the “Trinity” was
derived from the Scriptural data. Biblical scholar Benjamin B. Warfield
explains the difference:

Precisely
what the New Testament is, is the documentation of the religion of the
incarnate Son and the outpoured Spirit, that is to say, of the religion of
the Trinity, and what we mean by the doctrine of the Trinity is nothing but
the formulation in exact language of the conception of God presupposed in
the religion of the incarnate Son and out poured Spirit. (Benjamin B.
Warfield, Biblical Doctrines (Carlisle: The Banner of Truth Trust,
1929, 146.)

Thus the Tri-Unity of God is based on biblical data. The
formulation of doctrinal words, however, came later when Christians,
developed the precise term "Trinity" that simply defined the
biblical data, because of the heresies that denied the biblical data in
some way or other. As with the doctrinal terms like "Substitutionary
Atonement," "Incarnation" or even the term "Gospel."
All these terms came later after the apostolic age, which the church used to
define the revelation or data that is clearly contained in Scripture.

Moreover, salvation is completely dependent on the Tri-Unity of God
(i.e., soteriological
Trinity). Example: The Covenant of Redemption, that is, all
that the Father gives to Christ will come and He will raise them up at the
last day (cf. John. 6:37ff). That Jesus is the Mediator between God (the
Father) and man (cf. 1 Tim. 2:5) can only be true if Jesus is God and is a distinct
Person from the one He is mediating for. Again, this point must be
understood: we cannot confuse the Scriptural data of the Trinity
with the doctrinal word, "Trinity" that defines the biblical data.

OBJECTION #2: PAGAN ORIGINS

The book also asserts, as do most
anti-Trinitarians, that the doctrine of the Trinity is derived from pagan
sources.

RESPONSE:This
is a fallacy of false cause (misrepresents the cause). The
Trinity is an utterly unique Christian doctrine. Pagans worshipped and
believed in many gods (as with the Mormons) hence, the
references in SYBT to the so-called parallelisms of the pagans were to
THREE separate gods NOT one God in existing in three distinct
Persons.

OBJECTION # 3: CHURCH FATHERS

The SYBT booklet asserts that the early (Anti-Nicene;
before the Council of Nicene; A.D. 325) church Fathers did NOT
believe in the doctrine of the Trinity.
The JWs booklet quotes from the Anti-Nicene church Fathers: Justin
Martyr (c. A.D.
160); Irenaeus (c. A.D.
180); Clement of Alexandria (c.
A.D. 195); Hippolytus
(c. A.D.
205); Tertullian (c. A.D. 213); and Origen (c.
A.D. 225). However when we refer
to actual statements contained in many works (e.g., The Anti-Nicene
Fathers, found at most city libraries and seminaries) clear is the fact:
the SYBT booklet grossly misquotes or misrepresents what they said and
believe. Not surprising is that the SYBT does not provide the addresses of
the citations; for obvious reasons.

RESPONSE:This
an argument from ignorance. They all, unequivocally, believed
in the full Deity of Christ (the quotes below are from the Ante-Nicene Fathers [hereafter ANF], (ed.
Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson; 1885-1887; reprint, 10 vols. Peabody,
MA: Hendrickson, 1994).

Ignatius bishop of Antioch (c.
A.D. 105). The SYBT does not
quote him, however, Ignatius was an early church Father that was a disciple of
the Apostle John.

God
Himself was manifested in human form for the renewal of eternal life (1:58).

Continue
in intimate union with Jesus Christ, our God (1:68).

I pray
for your happiness forever in our God, Jesus Christ (1:96).

Justin Martyr(A.D.
150). The SYBT booklet says that Justin called Jesus "a created
angel" (p. 7). Justin did call Christ an angel, however only in the sense
that He came as a messenger, to the people of the Old Testament
(e.g., the angel of the LORD who spoke to Moses and claimed to be the "I
AM"; cf. Exod. 3:14ff; see ANF, 1. 223). The English word
"angel" has the denotative meaning, in both Hebrew and Greek, as
simply "messenger."
Jesus certainly was active in the Old Testament as a "messenger,"
and that is what Justin meant. John 1:18 says: "No man has ever seen God
at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has
explained Him." Jesus in the Old Testament interacted with the people of
God (e.g., angel of the LORD; the Rock that accompanied the Israelites, see 1
Cor. 10:4).

Never
once did Justin say or infer that Christ was createdonly
the converse is asserted: Jesus Christ was the Eternal God. But again the
quotes in the SYBT booklet are without addresses. Let us read what
Justin really said:

He
deserves to be worshipped as God and as Christ (1:229).

For
Christ is King, Priest, God, Lord, Angel and man (1:221).

The
Father of the universe has a Son. And He, being the first-begotten Word of
God, is even God (1:184).

David
predicted that He would be born from the womb before the sun and moon,
according to the Father's will, He made Him known, being Christ, as God,
strong and to be worshipped (1:237).

Next, the
SYBT cites Irenaeus bishop of Lyons (c.
A.D. 185), as saying that Jesus
was inferior and not equal with the Father. However Irenaeus clearly believed
and defined the full Deity of Christ:

I have
shown from the Scriptures that none of the sons of Adam are, absolutely and
as to everything, called God, or named Lord, But Jesus is Himself in His own
right, beyond all men who ever lived, God, Lord, King Eternal, and the
Incarnate Word… (1:449).

Thus He
indicates in clear terms that He is God, and that His advent was in
Bethlehem… God, then, was made man, and the Lord Himself save us (1:451).

He is God
for the name Emmanuel indicates this (1:452).

Christ
Himself, therefore, together with the Father, is the God of the living, who
spoke to Moses, and who was also manifested to the fathers (1:467).

He was
man, and He was God. This was so that since as man He suffered for us, so as
God He might have compassion on us (1:545).

Clement
of Alexandria (c. A.D. 195)who is cited as saying that Jesus, was not equal to the Father.
But read what he actually said:

He is God
in the form of man. . . the Word who is God, who is in the Father, who is at
the Father's right hand. And with the form of God, He is God (2:210).

The Word
itself, that is, the Son of God, is one wit the Father by equality of
substance. He is eternal and uncreated (2:574).

Hippolytus
(c. A.D. 203)is
cited as believing that prehuman Jesus was created. But notice what this great
Christian apologist really stood for and believed:

Having
been made man, He is still God for ever. For to this effect, John also had
said, 'Who is and who was, and who is to come--the Almighty.' And he has
appropriately called Christ the 'Almighty' (5:225)

They
killed the Son of their Benefactor, for He is co-eternal with the Father
(5:220)

For, as
the Only-Begotten Word of God, being God of God, He emptied Himself,
according to the Scriptures… (5:167)

The Logos
alone of this One is from God Himself. For that reason also, He is God.
Being of the substance of God. In contrast, the world was made from nothing.
Therefore, it is not God (5:151).

Therefore,
a man . . . is compelled to acknowledge God the Father Almighty, and Christ
Jesus the Son of God--who, being God, became man, to whom also the Father
made all things subject (Himself excepted)--and the Holy Spirit; and that
these are three [Persons] (5:226).

"Go
and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit." By this, He showed that whoever omits any
one of these three, fails in glorifying God perfectly. For it is through
this Trinity that the Father is glorified. For the Father willed, the Son
did, and the Spirit manifested (5:228).

Tertullian
Carthage
(c. A.D. 213) is
cited next as saying, "there was a time that the Son was not" ( 7).
However, what Tertullian meant (in his argument against
the Modalism of Praxeas)
was that he believed the Word was the Eternal God but yet distinct
in His Person from God the Father, and that the Word took on the title "Son"
which was a common belief among many church Fathers (esp. the apologists).
That Tertullian said that Jesus was created or came to be (in
terms of His existence as a Person) is completely and diabolically distorting
what Tertullian meant. In fact, it was Tertullian that first
coined the word "Trinity"(Lat.
trinitas, the cognate of Gk. triados) in the West. Odd that
the SYBT booklet would even cite this church Father. Tertullian taught:

For the
very church itself--properly and principally--the Spirit Himself, in whom is
the Trinity [trinitas],
of the One Divinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" (4:99;
emphasis added; cf. Against Praxeas).

This
opens the ears of Christ our God (3:715; cf. ibid.).

Surely I
might venture to claim the very Word also as being of the Creator's [Father]
substance (3:356; cf. ibid.).

Now, if
He too is God, for according to John, 'The Word was God,' then you have two
Beings-- One who commands that the thing to be made, and the other who
creates. In what sense, however, you ought to understand Him to be another.
I have already explained: on the ground of personality, not of substance.
And in the way of distinction, not of division. I must everywhere hold only
one substance, in three coherent and inseparable [persons] (3. 607; cf.
ibid.).

It should be noted
as well that in the East, as early as A.D.180, church apologist Theophilus bishop of Antioch first uses the term
“Trinity” to describe God:

In
like manner also the three days which were before the luminaries, are types
of the Trinity [triados] of God, and His Word, and His wisdom
(Theophilus
To Autolycus 2.15, in ANF, vol. 3).

Origen
(c. A.D. 228) was also cited by SYBT as
denying that Jesus was God. However, Origen contradicts these Watchtower
assertions:

The Word
that was in the beginning with God (who is also very God) may come to us
(4:449).

The Son
is not different from the Father in substance (9:336).

Saving
baptism was not complete except by the authority of the most excellent
Trinity of them all. That is, it is made complete by naming the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. In this, we join the name of the Holy Spirit to the
Unbegotten God (the Father) and to His Only-Begotten Son (4:252).

The above is a mere set of examples of the massive collection of the libraries of quotations and apologetic works of
church Fathers teaching and defending the deity of Christ and the
doctrine of the Trinity are massive. To the church Fathers, teaching, and defending the
Deity of Christ and the Trinity was extremely important to them. Many of them
spilled their own blood defending these doctrines. Why? Because in Trinity
is how God revealed Himself to man: FATHER, SON, and HOLY SPIRIT.

The SYBT ends this page entitled: "What the Ante-Nicene Fathers
Taught" by this:

"Thus,
the testimony of the Bible and of history makes clear that the Trinity was
unknown throughout Biblical times and for several centuries thereafter"
(p. 7).

Unknown?

OBJECTION
#4: The
Trinity doctrine did not emerge
until fourth century:

RESPONSE:
To be sure, this is an argument from ignorance. First of all, it is
completely misleading to say that the doctrine of the Trinity did not emerge
until the fourth century. As seen above, in the East, as early as
A.D.
180, church apologist Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, first uses the term
“Trinity” to describe God:

In
like manner also the three days which were before the luminaries, are types of
the Trinity [triados] of God, and His Word, and His wisdom
(Theophilus, To Autolycus, 2.15).

And,
noted above, in the West, around
A.D.
213, the brilliant church theologian and polemicist, Tertullian of Carthage,
uses the term “Trinity”:

As
if in this way also one were not All, in that All are of One, by unity (that
is) of substance; while the mystery of the dispensation is still guarded,
which distributes the Unity into a Trinity [trinitas]
placing in their order the three Persons. . . . (Tertullian, Against
Praxeas, 2, in ANF, vol. 3).

Again,
it is true the exact English word “Trinity” is not in the Bible. But, as
we have seen, this is a meaningless objection since there are many words that
are justifiably used to communicate the truth of God, not specifically
utilized in the Hebrew or Greek text (e.g., “incarnation,”
“self-existent,” “omnipresence”; etc.). The point being that the
Christian church has used many extra-biblical terminology words to convey
divine revelation. Sola Scriptura is not simply adhering to the words of
Scripture, but it is also being faithful to the teaching of Scripture.
Regrettably, far too many people are deceived into thinking that the latter
must be rejected if it does not incorporate verbatim the language of
the former.

Descriptive
theological words do not necessarily have to be the exact words
form the original languages to communicate a biblical truth. The reason that
the Protestant church rejected (and rejects) the dogmas of Roman Catholicism
is that Rome holds to the position that the Word of God is contained in both
“tradition and Scripture.” Hence, Catholic doctrines like Purgatory,praying for the dead, the Immaculate Conception of Mary, ex
cathedra, (i.e., the infallibility of the Pope), etc., are not doctrines
derived from Scripture (the written Word), but rather church tradition.10
For these teachings are foreign to Scripture. Thus, the Protestant church
repudiates that claim whereby holding to Scripture alone11
as the sole infallible rule of faith for the church—Scripture is sufficient.
“Do not,” Paul says, “go beyond what is written” (1 Cor. 4:6 NIV).

We
are dealing, therefore, with the biblical data for the Trinity. Again,
the precise terms to which define the data (viz. formularized doctrine) came
later. So the assertion that the Trinity did not emerge until the fourth
century confuses the doctrinal word “Trinity” with the biblical data of
God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, which, as we will enjoy
shortly, the early church envisaged. They did not see God as a single
undifferentiated Being, but the God who revealed Himself as tri-personal.

OBJECTION #5: THE CHURCH FELL INTO TOTAL APOSTASY

JWs assert that the Early Christian church
fell into Complete Apostasy after the death of the Apostles.

RESPONSE:This
is an argument from ignorance. When did so-called apostasy
happen? What year? In point of fact, there is not a shred of anything that
would indicate or even infer that the entire Christian church
fell into apostasy. The verses that they use say that only "some"
will fall away or that "many" will abandon the faith but never
once does Scripture say that ALL will apostatize.
To assert this notion is an "easy-out" for JWs that say that: The
original Christian Church did not teach Jesus was God. Both Mormons and JWs
maintain this idea of a total apostasy only to avoid the truth
that the early Christians taught what Christians believe today: THERE EXIST
ONE TRUE GOD and JESUS IS THE ETERNAL GOD DISTINCT FROM HIS FATHER.

If the early Christian church apostatized, why do we read in Revelation 2:1ff.
that the Ephesus church was commended by God for not tolerating wicked men and
testing those who claimed to be apostles but were false. And we read of six
other functioning Christian churches. The point is this: the Apostle John
wrote Revelation, in or around A.D.
70-90!--no more than forty or sixty years after
the resurrection Christ!

So, did the entire Christian church fall after that? How could this happen?
What does that say about the condition of the early Christians? Where they so
spiritually bankrupt that they suddenly fell to paganism? Or suddenly just
quit believing? What does that say about God? Could He not hold His own church
together? Where is the evidence for this?

That
the whole Christian church is even able to fall-away is notion that is sharply
refuted by the apostles and Jesus Christ Himself:

Thou art
the Christ, the Son of the living God. . . . And Jesus answered and
said unto him. . . . "That
thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of
hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:16-18; KJV).

"All
authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have
commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the
age" (Matt. 28:18-20; emphasis added).

Jesus promised that He would never leave
His church, nor would the gates of hell come against her. Likewise, the
apostle Paul explains: "To him
[Jesus] be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all
generations, for ever and ever! Amen (Eph. 3:21). In contrast
to the assertions made by the JWs, that His teachings were somehow lost, Jesus
made a clear promise that His teachings would indeed last: "You
did not choose me, but I choose you and appointed you to go and bear
fruit -- fruit that will last" (John 15:16; emphasis
added). As seen
above, the church Fathers from Ignatius, to the great defender of the Trinity,
Athanasius, and after, believed and taught that: Jesus Christ was the eternal
God Creator of all things.

Think about it, if there were no true Christians until the JWs emerged (1870),
then, would it not follow that we would find distinctive Watchtower
theology somewhere in church history? We have records of virtually every
teaching that was prorogated from the first century. Where in church
history though were the teachings of the JWs? And of course the
Mormons (who make the same church fell in total apostasy claim) have
the same problem: where was distinctive LDS doctrine before Joseph Smith
(1830)?

Historically, we do have records of virtually every promulgated theology. However
we do not have ANY historical record of distinctive Watchtower theology.
Hence, are we to believe that for over 1800 years Jehovah did not have a
witness until Charles Taze Russell (JW's founder) came on the scene? The only
teaching that even resembles Watchtower theology (esp. Jesus as a
created being) was Arianism.1Accordingly, the Christian church roundly and
sharply condemned Arianism because it denied Jesus Christ as eternal God, as
the JWs teach.

OBJECTION
#6: THE TRINITY IS THREE GODS

Most JWs grossly misrepresent the doctrine of the
Trinity by asserting that the Trinity is three separate Gods.

RESPONSE:Again, this a typical straw man argument. The doctrine
of the Trinity is not three Gods. The doctrine of three Gods is tritheism,
not Trinitarianism. Three Gods is how Mormons
view the Godhead. The foundation of the Trinity is pure ontological
monotheism: ONE GOD. One Being revealed in three distinct
Persons, coexistent, coequal, and coeternal.

OBJECTION #7: THE TRINITY IS ILLOGICAL

The SYBT says that the Trinity is, "Beyond
the grasp of human reason" (4). And that God is, "Not a God of
confusion" (ibid.). From that line of thought, JWs will argue that
Trinity cannot be true, it too confusing.

RESPONSE:For something to be illogical, it would have to contradict
reason. The doctrine of the Trinity does not contradict reason.
The Trinity is not 1 person in 3 persons or 1 God in 3 Gods. It does not
follow that because something is not completely explicable that it cannot
exist or cannot be true. For example, many of the formulations in physical
science, not contrary to reason, and may be apprehended (though it may not be
comprehended) by the human mind.2
Does anyone completely understand how light travels? Does it travel as a wave,
corpuscular or quantum phenomenon? Yet, we believe in the reality of light,
even though we cannot totally comprehend it.

The Trinity may not be totally comprehendible, but we can surely apprehend
how God has revealed Himself to us through Scripture: There is ONE TRUE
GOD; the Father is God the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God. And the
three are clearly differentiated. One God revealed in three distinct Persons.
We cannot simply put God in easy-to-understand categories to gratify our
feeble minds. We are called to worship God how He revealed Himself to us in
His Word, anything less, is not worshipping, or honoring the true God.

The JWs reject the Trinity and hence they reject God. God is tri-personal He
is not a unipersonal God as taught by the JWs. They are without excuse:

"Do
you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the
Creator of the ends of the earth." (Isa. 40:28).

Notes

1, Early in the
fourth century, Arius of Alexandria, postulated his teaching that Jesus was a different
substance (heteroousios) than that of the Father. He used some of the
same argumentation that the JWs use today. And of course, Arianism was
completely refuted as heresy at the Council of Nicea (A.D.
325).

2,
Example taken from: Robert M. Bowman, Jr., Why You Should Believe in the
Trinity, An Answer to Jehovah's Witnesses (Baker House Books, Grand Rapids
Michigan), 17.

Also, the JWs are correct that trinitarianism, properly speaking, didn't emerge until around the second half of the 300s. Those early authors you quote here do talk of a triad or trinity - but it is not the one God! Rather, God is a member of it - the triad is God, his word, and his Spirit. I have a long, ongoing series on trinities about this very subject.

Hello Brother Dale. It is a great honour to have you comment on my humble blog and I must say that I honestly appreciate your effort in trying to share your view with us all in this imperfect world... First I must say that I recommend your vast research in the course of Christian Apologetics and it is, once again, a great honour to have you here...I am currently working on an irrefutable proof that the Trinity is truth...From your website (which you called a "better objection"), I could see that you are a lover of syllogism i.e:QUOTING YOUR SITE:T1 The Father is not the TrinityT2 The Trinity is God.T3 Therefore, the Father is not God.

T1 The Father is not the Trinity.U2 The Father is God.U3 Therefore, The Trinity is not God.

Syllogism is almost never an effective way to argue, else, all arguments would be absurd... The Father is not the Trinity; the Father is a member of the Trinity.... (I guess I'd have to begin focusing on refuting and writing rebuttals to your claims in your website...)

Why don't you follow the LINK: http://refuterslodge.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-early-church-fathers-on-trinity.html to see a bombardment of proofs that the early Church Father (who lived before Arius' father was born) believed in "unified monotheism" as opposed to Unitarianism.

QUOTING IGNATIUS:"We have also as a Physician the LORD OUR GOD Jesus the Christ the only-begotten Son and WORD, before time began, but who afterwards became also man, of Mary the virgin. For ‘the Word was made flesh.' Being incorporeal, He was in the body; being impassible, He was in a passable body; being immortal, He was in a mortal body; being life, He became subject to corruption, that He might free our souls from death and corruption, and heal them, and might restore them to health, when they were diseased with ungodliness and wicked lusts." (Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., The ante-Nicene Fathers, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975 rpt., Vol. 1, p. 52, Ephesians 7.)

If Ignatius, who was a friend to the student of Apostle John, Polycarp, could believe in Jesus as GOD and at the same time, in ONE GOD, how could it be possible if they were unitarians? In my next post, i will dish out the scriptural foundation of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the dead end of unitarians regarding Biblical Trinity...

It is very easy to prove the Trinity from the Bible alone without much stress... Like I earlier said, I am working on a new post that is centered on proving the Doctrine of Trinity from the Bible. I understand that we all are working hard to see that we understand the word of God perfectly but we should also know that no one can find out the "deep things" of God except the Holy Spirit (cf. Job 11:7, 1 Corinth. 2:10, New World Translation)... It is very, very easy to prove the Trinity from the Bible alone and if you're thinking that I am going to make use of the famous "Trinity proof text", you are mistaken... My points are going to be irrefutable I promise you and I'm going to focus on sending rebuttals and refutations of your website